Barnesville's Martz can laugh now, but forgetting helmet for section title game made him a little nervous

Barnesville, Minn.

Barnesville was less than an hour from playing rival Hawley for the Minnesota Class 2A, Section 8 football title at the Fargodome last Friday. Brady Martz was playing in what could've been his final game with the Trojans. He was the leading rusher, had the most receptions and the most tackles on the team in his senior season. He was ready to redeem a 48-30 loss in the regular season that snapped a streak of 29 straight home wins for Barnesville.

But he forgot his helmet.

"Are you serious?" Barnesville coach Bryan Strand said to him when he told him.

He was serious.

"We were about to leave the locker room and do some stretching," Martz said. "It's usually the last thing in the bottom of my bag, and it wasn't there. I got a little nervous."

Strand immediately called Martz's dad to see if he had left Barnesville for the Fargodome. He was already at the dome. Martz's dad called people in Barnesville. The entire town of Barnesville was already there. Martz's dad ended up going to a sporting goods store to buy a mouthguard. While he did that, Strand had Martz try on the helmets of underclassmen to see if any fit. One helmet wasn't bad, but it was having trouble holding air. Then, came sophomore Graham Abarr's helmet.

"It was like Cinderella," Strand said.

That wasn't the only equipment malfunction for Martz. A week before the section championship his dad had noticed one of his spikes beginning to fall apart. He told him to bring his brother's spikes just in case. Good thing he did because he needed to switch to his brother's spikes to finish the game.

"It was an eventful night," Strand said.

Strand is guilty of being forgetful, too, as he forgot a SIM card for the recorder, so the Trojans couldn't record the game. Luckily, rival Hawley came through, sending the recording to Barnesville, so the Trojans could prepare.

Strand will not be messing around when the Trojans make a trip to Alexandria for a 7 p.m. game against Paynesville Area in the Class 2A quarterfinals Friday.

"We will be checking Martz's locker and all lockers," Strand said. "Thing is another coach and I did the walk through, but his towel was on the front of his locker, so we never saw that a helmet was still in there. We always walk through just to make sure, just never saw it."

Minnesota state football quarterfinals

Friday

Class 2A

Barnesville vs. Paynesville Area, at Alexandria, 7 p.m.

West Central Area vs. Moose-Lake Willow River, at Brainerd, 7 p.m.

9-man

Verndale vs. Spring Grove, at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

Saturday

Class 1A

Mahnomen vs. Minneota, at Alexandria, noon

Ada-Borup-NCW vs. Braham, at Brainerd, noon